When Larry Liu moved from Shanghai to Sacramento, California, in 2003 for his job at Intel, he realized the nearest Chinese supermarket was almost two hours by car. With the “ethnic” aisles in traditional brick-and-mortar supermarkets leaving plenty to be desired, Liu resorted to networking with like-minded neighbors via the messaging app WeChat to find some of the foods that reminded him of home.
By 2015, he launched Weee!, a platform for group-buying beloved foods such as pork bellies or fresh-caught Pacific black cod from local purveyors. But it still didn’t fully solve the issue of convenience since customers would have to stop by a neighbor’s garage to pick up their goods. “You’d still have to drive half an hour to 99 Ranch or H Mart to buy green onion and bok choy, and Costco for the milk and eggs,” said Liu, who pivoted Weee! to be a one-stop online shop for authentic Chinese products and supermarket staples in 2017.
The Fremont, California-based company has since expanded to include more than 4,000 Asian and Hispanic products ranging from Taiwan cabbage and Korean-style pork belly to taro-flavored boba lattes and Lay’s cucumber-flavored potato chips. The biggest operator in the Asian online grocery space, Weee! has raised over $400 million since its founding. In March, Bloomberg valued the company at $2.8 billion.
www.nbcnews.com
By 2015, he launched Weee!, a platform for group-buying beloved foods such as pork bellies or fresh-caught Pacific black cod from local purveyors. But it still didn’t fully solve the issue of convenience since customers would have to stop by a neighbor’s garage to pick up their goods. “You’d still have to drive half an hour to 99 Ranch or H Mart to buy green onion and bok choy, and Costco for the milk and eggs,” said Liu, who pivoted Weee! to be a one-stop online shop for authentic Chinese products and supermarket staples in 2017.
The Fremont, California-based company has since expanded to include more than 4,000 Asian and Hispanic products ranging from Taiwan cabbage and Korean-style pork belly to taro-flavored boba lattes and Lay’s cucumber-flavored potato chips. The biggest operator in the Asian online grocery space, Weee! has raised over $400 million since its founding. In March, Bloomberg valued the company at $2.8 billion.
A $9 billion dollar industry is poised to replace your supermarket’s ‘ethnic aisles’
These retailers are filling a need left by many traditional supermarkets, whose “ethnic” aisles are unable to cater to the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S.
www.nbcnews.com